Human Right Infringement in Things Fall Apart

The United for Human Rights states the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Thirty Articles to protect human rights. According to the United Nations, human rights are based on the fact that human beings require dignity and to be treated in respect. In Chinua Achebe’s Thing’s Fall Apart, though a novel written in 1958 with a late 1800 pre and post colonial setting, there is a lot to be seen in terms of violation of human rights with is a part largely played by culture in addition to the transition that took place during post colonialism.

These rights include:

• Article 1 Right to equality at birth
• Article 4 No Slavery
• Article 5 No torture or cruel inhuman punishment
• Article 9 No subjection to arbitrary arrest detention or exile
• Article 10 Equality to a fair and public hearing
• Article 13 Freedom to move
• Article 17 Right to property ownership with no arbitrary deprivation of property
• Article 18 Freedom of thought, religion and belief
• Article 19 Freedom of expression

Right to equality at birth is violated for Ezinma, Ekwefi’s daughter. Okwonko constantly wishes Ezinma would have been a son as girls have lesser value to girls and she would have been good “replacement” for his weak and lazy son Nwoye. Okwonkwo’s father Unoka is also referred to as an Agbala translating to a woman simply because he is lazy and unproductive (Achebe 10). Women could also be replaced even after death. Achebe states (20) how Udo’s wife was replaced by a virgin from a neighboring village where his wife was killed. This is demeaning to the female fraternity.

Article 4 of no slavery to any person is violated when Ikemefuna is snatched from his family and taken away by Okwonko as a village property who is to be under Okwonkwo’s custody as a servant (Achebe 11). Article 5 of no torture and cruel inhumane punishment is seen in wife beating (Achebe 21) together with violation of freedom of movement as Okwonkwo’s beats his wife because she had gone to make

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Measures to Ensure Human Rights

Measures that can be taken to ensure human rights are not violated include creating awareness to citizens on their rights, setting up bodies that handle human rights issues, formulating laws and getting into strong international organizations and adopting standards, conventions and declarations that are binding or adopted in modification. Truth commissions and international war crimes tribunals can also be set up to handle occurrences. Areas of conflict must also be given humanitarian aid and developmental assistance. These include peacekeeping missions and creating safe havens for refugees.

Works Cited

1. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heineman, 1958.
2. United for Human Rights. Making Human Rights a Fact. 2017 Web. 28 September 2017